


Silk Slippers

by tinadoodle31



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-25
Updated: 2016-04-25
Packaged: 2018-06-04 12:05:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6657106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinadoodle31/pseuds/tinadoodle31
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A retelling of Cinderella, for my wonderful friend Maeve.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Silk Slippers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [maevemauvaise](https://archiveofourown.org/users/maevemauvaise/gifts).



> Happy birthday, Maeve! I hope you have a wonderful day.

Sweep the floors, then scrub them within an inch of their lives. Make sure the tiles reflect the light from the windows perfectly. Dust and shine the baseboards. Take the rugs out and beat the dirt from them. Polish the wood with oil until it gleams. And then, stoke the stove fires up to blazing and start the morning meal.

Wufei was used to this routine – had been since he’d been old enough to reach the top of the stove. It was wearisome work, but he didn’t dare sigh. Sighs, any expressions beyond one of neutral pleasantness…they meant a beating and a night spent in the pigsty with no dinner. It hadn’t always been like this. No, he could remember days spent in joy and laughter, chasing his father through the garden and through the halls of their ancestral manor…

_“Keep up with me, youngling,” his father laughed, darting through the rocks and over the miniature stream that separated the main house from the kitchens. Wufei nodded and tried to lengthen his stride, grinning as he chased after his father. Oh, he knew he hadn’t a chance to catch the man – he was, after all, much taller than the little boy, but the end of the race was the real treat. Father was going to take him out to the town market, by horse this time! He’d never been allowed anywhere near the tall beasts before; he’d been too small, too at risk of getting underfoot and trampled._

“Tell me, boy, do you plan on serving breakfast any time soon? It’s already dawn.”

The coarse, sharp voice of his eldest step-brother broke through Wufei’s daydream and hurled him back into the hard ground of reality. He jerked and turned, falling to his knees in a bow. “Y-yes, Treize” he murmured, anticipating the usual sharp sting of his brother’s walking stick. “I’ll have it to you soon.”

The blow never came. Instead, he felt his brother’s eyes regarding him with their usual sharpness. Soft slippers – in powder blue, Treize rarely ever wore any other color – appeared in front of his nose. “Such laziness. You should be more grateful that my mother allows you to stay. After all, your mother was just a commoner. I should wonder if your father actually sired you.”

The slippers slid out of view and Wufei waited as Treize left the kitchen. The words didn’t hurt any more. He’d heard them daily for years. If it hadn’t been for the fact that his profile in the mirror exactly matched that of the portraits of his father that were scattered about the manor, Wufei would have believed them. But he knew better. The other servants, the ones who cared for him when there was no risk of the Lady or her sons’ wrath falling on them, told stories about his father’s love for his mother.

Wufei climbed carefully to his feet and turned back to the stove, praying that the food hadn’t burned. Fortunately, his luck held out and nothing was even remotely singed. He portioned it out, ignoring the smells with a long-practiced stubbornness, then stacked the lacquered trays and carried them over to the main house. Fortunately, his step-mother and brothers preferred to eat together, and the warm, soft sunlight of summer morning filtering down through the foliage meant that they were in the back garden instead of inside the house.

\-------

“We’re going to have to do something about him,” Lady Une sighed. “After all, there was a dowry willed to him. Dr. Po knows that, as executor of the will, too, and I have a feeling she will cause trouble if things don’t go exactly as Xiangli left them.”

Treize scowled over his tea. “And his dowry takes away from ours. How are we to make appropriate matches if that little brat gets any of what the old man left?”

Zechs laughed, shaking his head. “Find him some old maid that will be more than happy to have a house-husband for half the dower, or some lord that needs a sidepiece to keep him happy. Then he’ll be out of your hair, Lady Mother, and you’ll be able to find Treize a match.

“Or,” he added as an afterthought, “you could give him over to the temple.”

The Lady gave her youngest son an approving smile. “The temple is the perfect idea. We could cut out his tongue, say he’d given the vow of silence.”

Treize shook his head, idly swirling his tea. He hated these conversations - his mother could order the boy to stay a servant, if she wished it, but she had some odd sort of loyalty to her dead husband.

“Couldn’t,” he said. “He can still write.”

“It’s a pity we aren’t closer to the capital,” Une murmured. “I hear the Emperor has a son of marriageable age, one that’s a bit too pretty for his own good, and we could find some old man to take our useless boy as a concubine. He's certainly pretty enough.”

Treize sat up, immediately far more interested in the conversation. “The Dragon Boat Festival is coming up, and we do have royal invitations this time” he said, so casually that his brother and mother shared a suspicious look before gazing expectantly at him.

“Oh? And just what does that have to do with princes and - ,” Une asked sharply, a little annoyed that her son was clearly making his own plans, but footsteps coming from the servants’ path interrupted her. “We’ll finish this conversation later.”

\----

Wufei was more than used to sudden silences when he entered rooms. His step-family rarely, if ever, spoke anything but curses when he was around.

He’d heard their voices - they never did seem to realize just how loud they spoke - heard words like ‘wedding’ and ‘dowry,’ and the silence that met him as he stepped through the doorway into the Lady’s private garden told him that they were talking about him again. They, of course, acted as if he didn’t exist; they sipped their drinks as he passed out the trays, uncovered the dishes, and poured fresh tea. He knew his brothers were on the market for spouses. Treize cursed him often enough, after all, for his father dying early and leaving their family with ill luck.

He was about to return to the kitchen for a fresh pot of boiled water when Une spoke.

“Boy, the Dragon Boat festival is coming up quickly. Your brothers and I have been invited to watch with the Court. I don’t think I need to tell you what an opportunity this is for them. You will help them with their preparations, and if I hear any word of you shirking your duties, I’ll make sure you stay here, alone.”

Wufei paled. She’d do just as she said, and while being alone for a day or so would be a wonderful reprieve, the Festival lasted almost two weeks. Any food they left behind would be gone in a matter of days, and Une would not leave money for more. He swallowed and got to his knees, bowing to his step-family. “Yes, Lady. I will do what you ask.”

Une nodded. “Very well. Now go on, make yourself useful and get another pot of water. This one is cold.” 

 

**Author's Note:**

> More chapters to follow! This one will probably get a couple of edits, too, after the semester ends. I'm going to have plenty of free time after the next couple of weeks.


End file.
